Santayana on Aesthetics. Santayana was one of the first to teach aesthetics at an American university (the1892-93 course at Harvard, The Sense of Beauty being one of the results). He devoted three books and many papers and chapters on aesthetic themes, yet all his studies served him to create his own position (to be described in Santayana Guide’s Part 10: Aesthetics, Arts, and Literary Figures). His views on aesthetics, as on philosophy in general, stem from his own elaborated system of thought that combines the elements of naturalism, individualism, pragmatism, and Platonism. It is predominantly by means of the categories of his own aesthetics that he provides us with his interpretations in this field as well as on the arts, aesthetic perception, work of art, criticism, on many artists and philosophies of art. Hence, it is difficult to separate Santayana’s views on aesthetics from looking at aesthetics from his own perspective. Interestingly, Santayana was specific on having adumbrated, at least thematically, most of his plots before he developed them in his numerous publications (cf. Ahmore 1966, 25). His thoughts and ideas were implemented also in his own art, which is poetry, literature (he wrote two best-sellers), and criticism.

[Read more…]